November 2, 2010

By S. MatthewLiao

The NYU Center for Bioethics invites you to attend a public lecture by Thomas Pogge, Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs, Yale University; Research Director, Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo

I propose the Health Impact Fund as a complement to the current patent regime. The HIF is a pay-for-performance mechanism that would offer innovators the option — no obligation — to register any new medicine. By registering a product, the innovator would agree to make it available, during its first decade on the market, everywhere at no more than the lowest feasible cost of production and distribution (to be determined through competitive tenders submitted by generic manufacturers). In exchange, the HIF would each year divide an annual reward pool among all registered products in proportion to their assessed health impact in that year. The HIF would not merely foster the introduction of new high-impact medicines, especially against the long-neglected diseases of the poor, and facilitate access to registered products by tightly limiting their price. The HIF would also motivate registrants to ensure that their products are widely available (perhaps at even lower prices), competently prescribed and optimally used.

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